Description

How can a Dova wishing to perfect his/her stealthy skillz expect to be successful with an invisible orchestra stalking you around 24/7 ?

This mod is comprised of silent music files you install which the game will load instead of the original music files. Choose which music to disable by type ( personally I prefer to disable everything except Discover Special locations, Reward music, Tavern music, and the two Special music options for the DLCs )

Resulting in no invisible orchestral music accompaniment throughout the game.You could just turn the music down in settings .. But then you dont get to hear Tavern music for exampleI prefer selectively being able to silence music by type.

The best quality this mod brings - You do not get any hints from the music because its now silent ( explore music changing to combat music ) that any danger approaches, so immersively its a better experience. Surprise attacks are a bit more of a surprise unless you hear their footfalls or they make another sound.This puts an edge on the game - Now you are not expecting enemies all the time, and brings back those jump in your seat moments. No more being alerted to a creature out of your field of view, 200 metres to your right behind rocks ..It gets chance to creep up on you as you blissfully walk on by enjoying the scenery ..Or rather, now you will be casting an occasional cautious look around.

And .. Just maybe .. Trolls might not be so bad tempered if they dont have to wear pink ear muffs to go to sleep.

You also get to hear more of the sound effects a bit more clearly around the game. Including other mods sound fx.

======Technical======

This mod installs loose music files in xwm format, with the same path and filename as the original files contained in the games sounds BSA, when the game engine finds loose files like these it uses them instead of the originals ( the same way Texture replacers work, also works on Music files - Reference topic BSAs and You ). I used xWMAEncode for the conversion processes, and used Audacity to manipulate the music files.The files are perfectly silenced, mono 44.1khz, duration 1.1 second, and then reconverted back into xwm format with the files original name.I think ( though this will only be a very small help ), this helps the game performance ever so slightly.Even with the volume turned down for music, the original music files are still being loaded and processed.With small empty sound files its a little less loading / processing the game has to cope with.Here are the properties on all the games original music files in one folder converted to wavs ..

From an original mod by Fleedar ( Disable Music by Category )This version of the same idea updated to also disable music from categories such as :

Dread - The sudden fading gong sound and short music score, instills a sense of impending danger ( typically in Draugr dungeons for example ).Reveal - Rare or very special awesome looking locations typically a follower like Serana will make a comment on if they are accompanying you, for instance Eldergleam Sanctuary.Reward - Hidden areas or mini special quest locations, you may want to leave these alone and not install them because the sound is the only clue you have found one of these.Discover - I split these into a couple of options to separate out the generic ones from the Special ones : Imperial and Stormcloak Castles, Highhrothgar and Sovngarde chanting.Word wall - The music which plays as you absorb the knowledge

Aaaand ! - Now also includes DawnGuard and DragonBorn music not covered by Fleedars mod.

Intro Music, Main themes, Level Up and Failure music have not been included.

Plus installer scripting for NMM and Wrye Bash ..

======INSTALLATION======

In all cases - Install the music types you wish to be silenced( This may sound weird, but remember you are installing silent music files )

Automated Install :

If using Nexus Mod Manager, it will use the scripted installation. Follow instructions and make selections.

If using Wrye Bash, after putting the zip in Bash Installers, go to the Installers tab and right click the zip, and choose Wizard install, follow instructions and make selections.( or .. just select individual sub-packages followed by right click install / anneal - Wrye Bash users know the drill )

Manual Install :

Extract the archive with 7zip

Copy the music folder(s) of the music you want silenced, to skyrimdata folder.

For example, if you want to disable only Skyrim exploration music, copy ..20 Skyrim - Explore Music / music / *all-files* to skyrim / data / music / *all-files*

==========UNINSTALLATION==========

NMM / Wrye Bash users just get your mod manager to un-install / re-install it as required with different options / or none.

Manual installations : Delete your skyrim/data/music folder to restore the original music, or delete individual folders inside skyrim/data/music to restore only those tracks ( This procedure assumes you have no other loose music files installed, if you have then you will need to take care not to delete other mods music files ).

====TWEAK TIP====

Skyrim.ini:

[Audio]uMaxSizeForCachedSound=8192

The default value is 262144 ( normally a hidden setting, it does not go in the ini by default ).

Too much cache brings out a game engine bug = sounds are repeated for different items when they should be playing a different sound, lowering the cache limit to 8mb makes the game refresh the cache more often, preventing repeated sounds for different sound events. Picking up a gold coin for example plays the generic pickup sound. Picking up a second gold coin plays the right sound, and this will last until you leave the area or switch to picking up other things. This tweak solves the problem.

And seeing as you are also using Kill The Orchestra ( short 1.1 second duration silent sounds replacing the music ), there is even less need for such a huge sound cache.

==========TOOLS USED===========

BSAOpt by EthatronTo extract the original files from the games BSA and find out their folder path and names

xWMAEncode from SkyrimSoundToolsTo convert xwm files to wav and vice versa - Needed to be able to listen to them and determine what some of the music was used for

AudacityThe best open source sound manipulation tool out there :)In this mods case, used to create the one file which was used repeatedly to replace all the files we needed to silence.

==========COMPATIBILITY===========

I use Audio Overhaul for Skyrim ( AOS v2 at time of writing ) which changes the games sound fx, but does not change music .. So yes that mod for one is compatible. Sounds of Skyrim I should imagine is similar if you use that instead. My mod has no plugin or records to worry about, no scripts or references which will become embedded in your save game, just plain ol' replacer music files.Install / remove / overwrite as much as you want.Though overwriting them with someone elses music files will give you different music ..That becomes your problem in deciding what you want, these or those, simple.As is any Mod manager related questions.Go forth and rtfm.

Enjoy.

olympusgames, GMOD or ModDrop sites do not have permission, to upload or redistribute any of my files, images or descriptive content, past, present or future.